These translations were sent to me by a friend. He said he pulled them off the web, so please
take each instance with a critical eye.

1.    The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to
       expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to the their attention the Spanish 
       translation read "Are you lactating?"

2.    Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From
       Diarrhea."

3.    Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign:
       "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

4.    Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is
       slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick."

5.    When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US,
       with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put
       pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

6.    Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno
       magazine.

7.    An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted 
       the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the Potato" (la
       papa).

8.    Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors
       Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

9.    The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela," meaning "Bite the wax tadpole"
       or "female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000
       characters to find a phoneticm equivalent "kokou kole," translating into "happiness in the
       mouth."

10.  Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was
       translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

11.  When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read,
       "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word
       "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket
       and make you pregnant!"

12.  When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican
       market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en
       cuero) in Spanish.

13.  General Motors Corp renamed its Buick LaCrosse in Canada, because the name for the car is
        slang for masturbation in Quebec, embarrassed officials with the U.S. automaker said Thursday.
        GM officials, who declined to be named, said it had been unaware that LaCrosse was a term for
        self-gratification among teenagers in French-speaking Quebec.

14.  In the 1970s, GM exported its Chevrolet Nova to Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries,
       only to be told that Nova translated into "doesn't go." Despite the name, and contrary to popular
       folklore, the car sold well.